Hopefully you didn’t see the dreadful “Did Jesus Die?” documentary on BBC4 recently. They basically set out to show that the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus is unfounded and presented the theory that he survived the cross and went to live in India as an alternative. The accusation was that the church was trying to force people to believe the unbelievable by refusing to allow anyone to ask questions.

So if the church are so anti-intellectual, perhaps this program could present the evidence in a fair-minded and unbiased manner. Apparently not. Only one person who actually believed in the resurrection – Tom Wright – was even interviewed, and despite his great learning on the subject, his contribution to the entire program amounted to not much more than 20 seconds. More disturbing was the way that facts were twisted or even left out, in the knowledge that your average viewer would not know the Bible well enough to realise what was going on.

So the main example given for contradictions in the gospels was “Did Jesus feed 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish or did he feed 4000 with 7 loaves?”. But what we are not told is that in fact the feeding of the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish is in all four gospels. Mark tells us that there was a then second miracle (feeding 4000) and even describes a conversation between Jesus and the disciples discussing the differences between the two miracles. So there is in fact no contradiction at all, just speculation that only one incident actually occured.

When presenting evidence that Jesus might have survived the cross they decided to simply leave out one of the most obvious objections – the spear thrust into Jesus’ side. Much mileage is got out of the fact that we have lost the original ending to Mark’s gospel, and this is used to imply that the claims of the resurrection only started appearing 300 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. No mention whatsoever is made of 1 Corinthians 15, which is dated much earlier than any of the gospels by even the most liberal scholars. Mark’s gospel in fact does end with an empty tomb and when you combine this with the repeated prophecies of Jesus that he would die and rise again on the third day, you can hardly believe that the original ending of Mark didn’t include a resurrection story. If Mark didn’t believe in the resurrection, what exactly is the point of his book?

Now to be fair, historians have a right to be cautious about accepting ancient accounts as “gospel truth” without thoroughly checking them. But Richard Denton, the program writer, while remaining deeply suspicious of anything in the gospel accounts, seems ready to believe absolutely anything else. Much later sources are quoted as undeniable facts to overthrow the unreliable gospel records, which were by any account written no more than a generation after the events. Completely unfounded ideas such as Jesus marrying Mary Magdelene and having children are presented as good history.

The whole “Jesus went to India” theory was well presented but again addressed absolutely none of the main objections that might be raised. In fact, a good number of the experts they interviewed would have been able to refute the idea, even though they did not themselves believe in the resurrection. Jesus was thoroughly Jewish in his thoughts and teaching. The similarities with Buddha’s teaching were hardly persuasive. They both warned of a judgement and against the love of money. The third piece of evidence was that both are claimed to have walked on water. But if we are to go with the documentory’s anti-supernatural stance, then these stories are myths anyway so I can’t see how it could possibly help the case for a visit to India.

Finally, Peter Stanford, the main interviewee (who came across as someone who resented his religious upbringing and was relishing the chance to get his own back) claimed that to think Jesus rose from the dead is to miss the whole point of Christianity. For him, the resurrection is about death – something that we all face, and even though Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, the myth of his ressurection in some way helps us all. Well Peter, I’m sorry but you’ve missed the whole point of Christianity. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, as Paul said in 1 Cor 15, your faith is futile, and we are to be pitied more than all men.

Ultimately the proof of the resurrection is not likely to come from historical research, but a personal encounter with the risen Christ. This is what happened to Paul, the early apostles, and millions of Christians since. Of course, not many have seen him physically, but he promised that when he went back to heaven he would send the Holy Spirit. I know from personal experience that the Holy Spirit has definitely come, so that’s good enough evidence for me that Jesus is now in heaven safe and well.